Sept. 19, 2000
6:00 AM ET.
Alert No. 23. |
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| News Briefs |
9/18. The House Commerce
Committee's Telecom Subcommittee approved HR
4445, the Reciprocal Compensation Adjustment Act of 2000,
by a voice vote late on Monday. This bill, which is supported by ILECs,
would end reciprocal compensation payments made for phone calls to
connect to the Internet. The Subcommittee held a hearing on this
bill on June 22. See, TLJ story
of June 23.
9/18. The WTO Appellate Body upheld a
ruling by a dispute settlement panel that Canada's 17 years from
grant patent term does not meet its TRIPS
obligations. USTR Charlene Barshefsky had
this to say: "We expect Canada to comply promptly and fully
with this ruling." See, USTR
release and the Report
of the Appellate Body [34 pages in PDF]. See also, TLJ story.
9/18. The House Judiciary
Committee scheduled a marathon mark up session for Sept. 19 and
20. The agenda includes 11 bills, including HR 5018, the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act of 2000. On Sept. 14 the Constitution
Subcommittee approved an Amendment
in the Nature of a Substitute offered by Rep. Charles Canady (R-FL),
as amended by an Amendment
offered by Rep. Bob Barr
(R-GA). The bill would: (1) require courts and law enforcement
entities to make annual reports to the Administrative Office of the
U.S. Courts (AO) regarding applications for orders, warrants, or
subpoenas authorizing or requiring the disclosure of the contents of
electronic communications, and further require the AO to submit an
annual report to Congress; (2) affect the use of electronic
communications as evidence in federal court; (3) affect the use pen
registers and trap and trace devices; and (4) preclude any
government entity from using any "mobile electronic
communication service" device as a physical locator, without
"a court order issued upon a finding that there is probable
cause to believe that (A) an individual is committing, has
committed, or is about to commit a felony offense; and (B) the
location information sought to be obtained concerns the location of
the person believed to have committed, be committing, or be about to
commit that offense or a victim of that offense." The final
item, which is the Barr Amendment, is intended to prevent the
widespread use of cell phones as tracking devices.
9/18. The Commission on
Child Online Protection held the first of two days of meetings.
9/18. Apple announced that it
has licensed Amazon.com's 1-Click patent and trademark for
use on its Apple Online Store, as part of an e-commerce patent
cross-licensing agreement. See, Apple
release.
9/14. The Texas Department
of Public Safety, with assistance from the RIAA's
Anti-Piracy Unit, executed a search warrant at Kode Red, a retail
outlet in a Dallas suburb. Among the items seized were three CD-R
towers, containing a total of 12 eight-speed CD-R burners, 329 blank
CD-Rs, 528 jewel cases, 898 pirate CD-R labels, and 373 completed
alleged pirate CD-Rs. See, RIAA
release.
Editor's Note: This column includes all News Briefs added to
Tech Law Journal since the last Daily E-Mail Alert. The dates
indicate when the event occurred, not the date of posting to Tech
Law Journal. |
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| Breaking News |
The Wall Street Journal reports in its web site that
"The European Commission has drafted a preliminary
recommendation to block the merger of America Online Inc. and Time
Warner Inc. ..." See, full
story.
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| New TLJ Stories |
WTO
Appellate Body Rules that Canada's 17 Year Patent Term Violates
TRIPS. (9/19) The WTO Appellate Body upheld a dispute
resolution panel decision that the section of the Canadian Patent
Act which provides for a term of 17 years from the date of issuance
violates Canada's obligations under the TRIPS Agreement.
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| New Documents |
WTO:
Appellate
Body Report re Canadian 17 year patent term, 9/18 (PDF, WTO).
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| New and Updated Sections |
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from Around the Web (updated daily).
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